Award-winning children’s book
author and illustrator Barbara McClintock draws like a dream; her “beautifully
restrained use of color may evoke a long-ago time, but her compositions
are so dynamic that there's always something for contemporary children
to discover.” [Michael
Cart, Booklist] Full of humor and wit and strong characterizations, her
books are timeless charmers.

Barbara's books have won 5 New York Times Best Books awards, a New York
Times Notable Book citation, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor award, and
numerous other awards, recommended/best book lists, and starred reviews.

As Barbara says about herself...

I was born and spent the first part of my growing up in Clinton, NJ.
My early influences were my photographer father, seamstress/teacher mother,
and the cartoon character Top Cat.

I drew constantly as a child. By the time I was seven, I knew I would
be an artist when I grew up. My older sister recommended I become a children's
book illustrator, and this proved to be a rare instance when I followed
my sister's advice. I also wanted to be a cat when I grew up, and am
glad I had art as a back up plan.

I loved inventing stories - very scary stories - that I told to my best
friend and her sisters in the darkest closet in their house. After numerous
nights of my friends not being able to sleep due to the aforesaid scary
stories, and the ensuing conversations between my friends' mother and
my mother, I developed a more benign approach to storytelling.

When I was 9, my parents divorced, and I moved to North Dakota with
my mother and sister. When my mother remarried, my step-father, a former
cowboy, gave me a horse. I rode from dawn 'til dusk every summer, until
I discovered boys. Drawing, however, never stopped - I continued to draw
through middle and high school, often in the margins of my test papers
and homework.

I attended Jamestown College in North Dakota, where I refined my drawing
skills by copying pictures in art books I checked out of my college library.

Way back in the dark ages when I attended college, there were no courses
available in children's literature, and I was clueless about how to even
begin a career as a children's book author/illustrator. I decided to
call Maurice Sendak to ask his advice, thinking that he, of anyone, would
know how I should proceed. My art Professor encouraged me to call, telling
me I had nothing to worry about. “He'll either be nice and tell
you what you want to know, or he'll just hang up.”

I called information in the town where Maurice
Sendak lived, got his phone number, and dialed. He answered the phone.
Maurice was gracious and very helpful; he talked to me for 20 minutes,
told me how to put together a portfolio, and recommended I move to New
York City.

Two weeks after my 20th birthday, my best friend took me to the airport
in Jamestown, ND, and I flew to New York to begin my career.

I studied for a few months at the Art Student's League in New York with
the notable illustrator John Groth, but the method of study that most
appealed to me was continuing to copy from art books I checked out of
libraries.

And what a vast treasure of art books were available to me once I was
in New York! I also sketched paintings and drawings in museums in New
York City, as well as London, Paris,
St. Louis, Vienna, and Lisbon. I'm essentially self-taught as an artist/illustrator,
and can thank the public library system for my free education.

My first job was designing characters for television commercials for
an animation studio.
I worked as a chef's assistant in a restaurant, failed miserably as a
waitress, and illustrated textbooks, until I met Jim Henson and began
illustrating books for his television series FRAGGLE ROCK.

During that period, I saw a play based on a Balzac story written as
a vehicle for the 19th Century French illustrator J.J. Grandville. That
play was the biggest epiphany of my life as an artist. I went home and
immediately drew an 87 page sketchbook of the play from memory. Regrettably,
the play closed within a week, robbing me of the opportunity to see it
again. I made a wordless dummy book based on the story, THE HEARTACHES
OF A FRENCH CAT, and took it around to publisher after publisher. Rejected
by 16 publishers before it was accepted by David R. Godine, it won my
first New York Times Best Books award.

Perhaps I'm a soul reincarnate from the 19th Century, or I just have
a fascination with history and period costume; my books dwell in a past
world. I've been amply rewarded for my obsession with an older time -
ANIMAL FABLES FROM AESOP, THE FANTASTIC DRAWINGS OF DANIELLE, DAHLIA,
THE GINGERBREAD MAN, CINDERELLA, and ADELE & SIMON are just a few
of my books based in a long-ago time that have won prestigious awards
and garnered glowing, sometimes rhapsodic reviews. There is some movement
into more contemporary settings for my books. MARY AND THE MOUSE, THE
MOUSE AND MARY takes place in the 1950s-1960s, and the 1990s - quite
an invigorating departure for me!

Inspiration for my stories comes from my childhood, family and friends.
My photographer father created a life-long love and fascination with
cameras and picture making. My son Larson has provided inspiration for
many of my books - THE BATTLE OF LUKE AND LONGNOSE came of his childhood
interest in swords and swashbuckling. As a young adult, his curious mind
has led him to a love of China, Mandarin, and Chinese culture and history,
and in turn has inspired me in Adele & Simon's next book, set in
1908 China. And my mother's love-since-childhood of Robert Louis Stevenson's
poetry culminated in my illustrating A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES for her.

In 2005, the illustrator David Johnson and I moved to a Georgian-style
brick house built in 1815 in rural Connecticut. My studio looks out over
the ever-expanding rose garden cultivated by David.
I 'travel' in time and imagination, to China, France, and my own back
yard for inspiration and settings for my books, but am only a few steps
away from the coffee pot in my kitchen.